An effective video campaign

How short is your attention span? Most of us would probably say it’s quite long. In reality, though, when you’re on social media, YouTube, or browsing the web, you have a very short attention span!

You’re in a rush to get as much information as possible.

As a result, online and video marketing has become very difficult. You might be wondering how you can possibly grab the attention of viewers whilst they rocket past your ad at the speed of light? How can you keep them engaged enough to continue watching the video?

Unfortunately, there’s no easy answers! As the attention span of the population gets shorter each year and demand for information increases, the answers become harder to define. Don’t worry, there are some basic things that you can implement into your campaigns to increase engagement from your viewers.

Short & sweet

Here’s an example. Whenever you research into video marketing, you’ll be advised to keep your video short and bold so that it stands out from the competition. You’ll be told to sell yourself within the first three seconds. This is a good thought to have in mind as you do only have a few seconds to get your message across, but only if you’re unengaging.

Every newbie will try to make the shortest, snappiest videos they can to try and generate engagement but, generally, this isn’t a great approach. You want to keep your video short but not too short. The best video ads, in our opinion, have ranged from 20 seconds to around two minutes. Each of these have different goals for the campaign, so don’t make short videos for the sake of making short videos. Is the ad engaging? Is it giving the viewer all of the information that you want to give them? Don’t give them too much, and don’t give them too little. Find the sweet spot.

Be engaging

Viewers go to social media and YouTube to relax. The last thing they want flooding their screens is a boring video that they don’t care about. This is even more pronounced when it’s interrupting the viewing of a video they want to see!

Comedy is often looked down upon in corporate scenarios, with many people suggesting that it doesn’t fit into the professional world. This can be true, but consumers, especially individuals, rarely identify with corporate culture. You are selling to real people with real emotions, not to impassive robots.

Comedy is a great online tactic in our current day and age. Impactful campaigns can also use heart-warming stories to capture the viewer and can be effective in creating conversions. Charities are a great example of this.

It’s not all about you

Just like with any other form of marketing, you don’t want to make your ad all about you. The viewer wants you speak to them and appeal to their needs. Don’t just speak about yourself for 2 minutes!

That’s exactly why you need to make sure the video relates to them. Make the story of your ad compelling and relatable. Even if it is an absurd idea, the fundamental aspect of the story needs to have some kind of emotional connection to your audience. Everything in the video can create this, from characters to location, music to the narrative.

Small things go a long way

There are many small details that can really make your video more noticeable and engaging to viewers, even before they click to watch it. These mainly apply if you’re uploading a video directly to YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook.

The first thing to consider is using the right tags or hashtags to expand your reach. This is especially important on YouTube, where your video will only be present in feeds and the search bar if someone is looking for your exact title or description. The right tags also optimise your video for better organic search results (SEO), making it more likely to show up when people search for related topics and keywords.

Another small detail that we often find neglected are thumbnails. Think of thumbnails as a preview of your video. They are the still images that are shown before somebody clicks on your video and whilst the video is loading. It is really important that this is just as, if not more engaging than the video itself. If your thumbnail is a blurry screenshot of something happening in the video, a viewer will not understand the context so they may ignore your video.

Video marketing can be a tough area to conquer. It is frequently changing with new trends, styles, and differing attention spans! However, video is the future of marketing and the demand for it is now more popular than ever. If you’re still confused about where to begin with video marketing, book a meeting with us. Let’s discuss your marketing strategy and how we can take your business to the next level with video.


Digital Marketing Executive.